10th December: Reds face Salzburg in pre-knockout decider

Avoid losing at all costs. That has to be the mantra for Jurgen Klopp.

And for his opposite number Jesse Marsch it is literally a must-win. If they do, they will secure safe passage through to the knockout stages.

But any other result will see the reigning champions scrape through with more points than they had to accumulate last time out.

In the Anfield fixture the game was almost discarded as dead rubber after Liverpool stormed into a 3-0 lead after 36 minutes.

The away side were obviously roused by the passionate bilingual team talk given by their American head coach as they were level on the hour mark, with goals from Takumi Minamino and Erling Haaland adding to Hwang Hee-Chan’s effort before half time.

Salah would eventually win it for Liverpool, but it was this performance which made the football world take notice of this exciting young team.

The game has echoes of Liverpool’s battles with Olympiakos back in 2004 and Napoli last year except the permutations are much more in their favour.

There is one situation where if minnows Genk beat Napoli, both sides can go through with a Salzburg win. But it is likely that this is a knockout and one will be heading into the Europa League.

Salzburg will be a threat to anyone though. Having scored 87 goals in just 24 matches this season, 28 of which have come from Erling Braut Haaland, they boast the best attacking record in Europe at the moment.

They have only lost one of their last 20 home European matches, losing to Napoli last time out.

The Reds have won just one of their previous five group stage away matches, with the only victory coming at Genk in October.

Team news

The home side will be without Antoine Bernede, Sekou Koita and Partick Farkas for today’s fixture, with no suspensions or doubts hindering the eleven that played at Anfield.

Dejan Lovren was hauled off at Bournemouth this weekend but is expected to be fit for the visitors. Gini Wijnaldum and Adam Lallana are also expected to be back, with Fabinho, Nathaniel Clyne and Joel Matip out until at least the new year.

From the Dugout

Salzburg manager Jesse Marsch praises the in-form Haaland’s commitment:

“This not a new theme, there has been a lot of talk. At one point we had a joke at a press conference that every day there was a new team interested.

“It is natural. Erling has had a great season and it is easy to see he is likeable and cares about the right things.

“You don’t see him in the team every day like I do and that’s what makes him special, he cares so much about the team and team success.

“Erling doesn’t have success without the whole group understanding how to play with each other and committing to each other.

“In the end he has handled himself incredibly well given all the talk of potentially what will happen.”

Klopp backs players in tough schedule:

“It’s tough because we play every three days. Tomorrow night is the most important game in our life because there is no other one.

“There is nothing to do with the situation in the Premier League.

“The situation in the Champions League group is okay, it’s far away from being brilliant, but it’s something we can work with.”

Head-to-head

Liverpool won the only encounter between the two in the previous group meeting, therefore it will be their first match-up on Austrian shores.